


The Perfect Gift

by aspertiia



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: 2020 Specord Secret Santa, Bo Globe, Gen, Gift Giving, Secret Santa, blue and crystal also appear sometimes, this wasn't meant to be ship but if you wanna read ship then sure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:09:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28816140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aspertiia/pseuds/aspertiia
Summary: Getting someone she knew well should've been the jackpot scenario of a Secret Santa. However things are a little tricky when he keeps appearing every time she's attempting to buy a gift. How many times does she have to pick an entirely new gift just to have Black spot her again unknowingly? She wanted it to be a surprise after-all.
Relationships: Black & White (Pokemon Adventures)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13
Collections: 2020 Specord Secret Santa





	The Perfect Gift

**Author's Note:**

> This was part of the Specord Secret Santa! It was really fun to be apart of and write for. Thanks for getting me out of my writing rut with this one!

Every year, the Dexholders had a get-together to celebrate Christmas in the form of a Secret Santa. Somehow — and luckily — the celebration had always gone well. While there had, inevitably, been a few instances where a gift was way off the mark for the receiver’s interests — usually when someone had only recently received their PokéDex and had not gotten the chance to get to know everyone else yet — everyone was at least good-natured about it.   
  
White’s secret santa had been assigned over a video call at the end of that November. She had been welcomed by the sight of two of her seniors - Blue and Crystal - holding a hat filled with many pieces of folded paper inside. The idea was to be assigned your secret santas now - even if many of the dexholders had to be told their assigned person over a call - so that when they would meet up around Christmas they would have the gifts ready to be opened.  
  
“Are you ready?” Blue asked. White wasn’t sure it was for her, but she nodded anyway as she watched Crystal’s hand disappear into the hat.  
White crossed her fingers out of the frame of the camera, and hoped she would get someone easy to buy for, maybe someone she knew personally. It was hard to keep up with many relationships when running her agency, but she’d try her best no matter who she got.  
  
Crystal’s hand came back out of the hat, holding a folded up strip of paper. Leaf tapped her hands on the table they were sat at in a mock drumroll.  
“You’ll be buying for… Black! Huh, isn’t that lucky?”   
  
White restrained the want to jump for joy in front of her seniors, instead just offered an excited smile in return, and a thank you for their time for organising the event and for assigning her someone in the first place.   
  
The call ended, Blue and Crystal had to assign everyone else their Secret Santa’s afterall, and White paused in her spot as she thought. Getting someone she knew was probably the jackpot in a Secret Santa. She knew what he  _ wouldn’t  _ like as a gift well enough to navigate herself away from things of the like. The issue came with figuring out what he could actually  _ want _ .   
  
She pondered the possibilities as she got ready to leave from work. Another movie being filmed with a pokémon from her agency as the star. Days were long and left her exhausted, which helped none with trying to think of a gift that Black would like—  
  
“PREZ!”   
  
The yell made her tense up and an undignified yelp left her mouth unintentionally in surprise.   
  
“PREZ! PREZ, PREZ— DID YOU GET YOUR SECRET SANTA YET?” Black’s excitement for the event was palpable. “WE— We can help each other buy stuff! I got—”  
  
“Black!” She quickly had to interrupt him. He couldn’t find out that she would be buying a gift for him! “That’s not the spirit of Secret Santa! It’s supposed to be a  _ secret _ ! We’re not supposed to  _ help each other! _ ”  
  
His head tilted to one side, he scratched his cheek. “No one will know! It’s not like we could have got each other, so I don’t see the problem!”   
  
She knew that if he had been reading her body language, he would have been able to guess who she was buying for. She tensed as he hit the nail on the head, even if with the wrong side of the hammer.  
“Look! I just don’t want to break the rules, okay? I’m sure you’ll figure out a gift perfectly fine.”   
  
She wished she could have said the same about her own adventure to buy something.   
  
  
  
Her first attempt at a gift had been in a quaint gift shop in Driftveil City. She had taken the day off of work to try to start — and finish — buying gifts. Her busy schedule didn’t exactly make it easy for her to have multiple attempts at this.  
  
At first, it seemed like a lost cause. The looming thought that she should have just tried any of the many stores in Castelia hung over her head as she picked up item after item and inevitably put it back in its place when she deemed it not good enough.   
  
Her shoulders sagged in defeat, while she half-heartedly folded a tacky shirt to be presentable on the shelf again. She wondered if she was being too picky. She was sure Black would appreciate just about anything she bought him, but something about being in the store made her feel as though she had to pick something that was  _ perfect _ .   
  
Then, her eyes landed on it.   
‘It’ being a display of various Pokémon native to Unova as cute plush toys. She could buy one for each member of his team! While not as good as the real thing, which he could turn to at any time, a display of them in his room would be cute. At least, that’s how she felt.   
  
Maybe a display of toys would be a little childish, maybe —  
  
“Prez?”   
  
The world was playing a cruel joke. What was Black doing in a small gift shop in  _ Driftveil _ . Probably doing the same as her, trying to find that perfect gift that didn’t seem to exist.   
“Black! Are you shopping for your Secret Santa as well?”   
  
He offered a firm nod as a response, before his face melted into a sheepish grin. “I still don’t have any ideas. I was hoping something would — you know! — pop out and say ‘ _ Hey! Look! They’d love me as a gift! _ ’ or something…”   
  
It was still early in the month, so White guessed he hadn’t resorted to panicking and using Musha so he could focus on a gift idea.  
  
Her eyes drifted back to the display of plush toys, and a thought popped into mind.   
She wasn’t sure if this was in the spirit of a Secret Santa, but maybe just… getting an idea of if he would like a certain gift wouldn’t be so bad?  
  
“Hey.” She pointed over to the display, and waited for Black’s eyes to follow the direction “What do you think of this?”  
“Woah… that’s so cool!” Black’s eyes shone in his excitement practically. Bingo. Maybe she could just buy this and he would forget about it by time Christmas rolled around.  
She thought she could, until she watched Black’s hand descend to grab the potential gift.   
  
“W-What are you doing?” She tried to hide how nervous the move made her by forcing a friendly smile on her face.  
Black’s eyebrows furrowed, he shoved his hand in his pocket to try to dig for his wallet. “Huh? I’m gonna buy it!” His tone is nonchalant. “I’m not sure if my Secret Santa would like it, but I want one!”  
  
There wasn’t really a way to get him to stop without admitting that she was going to buy it for him. She clenched her hands into fists inside her own pockets, and kept the forced smile on her face. Frustrating… Why was buying a gift for Black so  _ frustrating _ ?  
  
“Are you sure? Isn’t it a little too close to Christmas to buy yourself things? What if someone already bought you one?” She tried to talk some sense into him at least.   
Black just snorted once, before breaking out into a series of chuckles. “Why would anyone buy me a Pokémon plush toy? Plus! The Musharna is so cute! Look at it’s face!” He lifted the plush closer to her face, and White could only view it’s expression as mocking, at this point. “And! If anyone bought me one, that’s okay! One for each hand!”   
  
She couldn’t buy one anyway, despite the encouragement that he’d appreciate having two. It’d be too obvious now, something he’d suspect when seeing that she would be the one giving him a gift. Her plan to buy one for each member of his team lost its magic from mere moments ago, anyway. He probably would have thought something like that was a thoughtful gift — just considering how highly he thinks of his team — but now that she knew he had one, it wouldn’t seem as special as it could have been.  
She can’t tell if she’s just holding herself to too high of a standard, or if the gift idea was genuinely ruined.   
She wouldn’t be buying any of the toys anyway. Maybe the next idea would be more successful — and maybe she had learned not to directly point Black toward any gift idea she had, since he wasn’t restrained enough to not buy it for himself immediately.  
  
  
  
  
The next time White tried to go gift shopping, she tried one of the stores in Castelia City. It sounded as if it only really opened for the holidays, or they went  _ very  _ overboard with decorating, to the point of changing the store’s name.  
Nevertheless, that’s where White had gone next. She thought maybe a decoration for the season would be something unexpected, but appreciated.   
  
Upon first entry, the chime of a bell on the door alerted anyone inside that White had arrived. An awkward smile graced her lips as a few people turned to look at her, and she quickly busied herself with looking at a nearby shelf.   
  
“What are you looking for?” White’s shoulders tensed in surprise, before she turned to look at the cheery, older-looking woman who addressed her from behind her desk.   
  
“Um… I’m looking for a gift!” Mitten clad hands wrung together as she spoke. She worried that maybe this wasn’t the store to look for gifts, maybe all it sold was decorations and the like. “My friends are running a Secret Santa, and I’m having a hard time finding anything that he’d like.”   
  
“I have just the thing!” Relief that maybe this journey looking for an acceptable gift might be over, White’s shoulders relaxed and her hands got shoved into her pockets. “If you go down that last aisle, over there,” she pointed somewhere behind White, “you’ll find some lovely trinkets.”   
  
She offered a wave in her gratitude, and hurried her way down to the aisle mentioned.   
  
At first, all it looked to be was cheesy little statues of Delibirds in various different poses. White felt defeat settle into her bones as she got further and further down the row of shelves, for it to only get worse and worse.   
The end of the aisle made her shoulders sag in her defeat. Nothing. Not a single one of those trinkets was something Black would be interested in —  
  
  
“Prez?”  
  
Oh, for the love of—  
White’s head shot up frantically, in search of where Black’s voice was coming from  _ now _ . Her eyes landed on him, crouched down at the shelves lining the back of the store. Each shelf filled with…   
  
Snow globes…   
  
“Black? What are you doing here?” She shoved her hands back into her pockets and tried to straighten out her back, just so defeat didn’t roll off her in waves as obviously as it was.   
  
Black reached to scratch his cheek sheepishly, and held up the snow globe in his hand. The snow was still falling, recently shaken, but inside was an Emboar, who’s patterns were messed up to look like it was wearing a Christmas sweater. It was cute, she might have considered buying that exact thing as a gift if it wasn’t sat  _ directly in Black’s hand _ .   
“I got distracted looking for a Secret Santa gift…”   
  
White offered him a sympathetic smile. “Don’t worry, it’s not easy when you’re focused either.”   
  
Black shuffled himself back to standing, and she noted that he had put the snow globe back in its place. There’s a brief pause, as he observed the other snow globes for just a minute more, before he turned to her fully.   
His voice was quiet, which it rarely was. “This store kind of sucks.”   
  
White’s hand shot from her pocket to try hide a laugh in the knitted fabric of her mittens. “Have you seen the Delibird aisle?” She watched as he perked up, and looked behind her to be welcomed with the view of far too many cheesy sculptures of said Pokémon.   
  
“WOAH—!” Black almost forgot to say bye as he was drawn towards the knick-knacks. “I’ll— I’ll catch you later! I have to see this!”  
  
She offered a raise of the hand, a small wave, before her eyes were back on the shelves of snow globes again. Her hand hovered over the Emboar one that had been in Black’s hands only moments ago.   
  
She balled her hand into a fist. That was cheating. She was going to get a thoughtful gift without Black having any idea of what it was. It was going to be a nice surprise, something he had never seen before and would be grateful to be introduced to and own.   
  
The feeling that maybe she was setting herself up for an impossible task haunted the back of her mind.   
  
  
  
  
A few weeks later, mid-December at this point, White was settled in her home, a parcel in her hands.   
This was it. The perfect gift. It had taken a few weeks to get made and get delivered to her door, but it was perfect. This is the gift she had in mind, something Black couldn’t have seen before and would absolutely love to own.   
  
The blade of half of her scissors cut through the tape holding the box together with ease, and in front of her eyes was the gift. The  _ perfect _ gift.  
Her hands brought out the sweater, not knitted, but still felt warm. She wondered if she had bought something fleece, it had been a while since she had placed the order… She hoped it wouldn’t get too warm outside of winter.   
  
She held it up in the air, and smiled wide. The B.W. Agency logo was large on the front. Nobody could miss it. It was perfect… She hoped. He had shown such enthusiasm with helping her with her agency that she hoped getting this wasn’t presumptuous, or didn’t come off as a plea for extra help.   
  
Just as she was admiring the sweater and getting ready to wrap it up, she heard her door open. She tensed, cursing herself for opening this just in front of the door in her excitement. She wasn’t expecting guests, she—  
  
  
“Prez!”   
  
She could have cried. She tried to bundle the sweater up and hide it, but it had already been too late. He had seen it.   
  
“Woah! Is the agency branching into merchandise?” Her shoulders sagged in defeat once more. He had seen her gift… She sighed, and turned around to face him. In one hand he was holding some sort of iced drink, his mouth blindly looked for the straw of it, but in the other it just looked to be a coffee.   
She knew he didn’t drink coffee, and she suddenly felt embarrassed that she was trying to curse him for visiting at all. She assumed he was trying to do something nice, at least, considering she had spent all this time waiting for the delivery getting more invested in her work for the agency. She was a little run off of her feet, and maybe he had noticed and wanted to bring her a coffee.   
  
It was nice, thoughtful, an unexpected surprise… The perfect gift. She thought the words with a tainting of bitterness. Why couldn’t  _ she _ get the perfect gift? Everything she had tried so far, he saw! He saw  _ her _ see them!   
  
“It’s… just a prototype! I’m thinking about merchandise!” She lied through her teeth, while accepting the offered to-go cup.  
  
Does the perfect gift even exist, at this point?   
  
  
  
  
The next time she tried to get a gift, it was on a lunch break. White had stomped her way into the nearest PokéCentre and asked — sharply — for ten potions.   
While maybe not the best gift idea she had, she had decided enough was enough. He would  _ use  _ the potions, it was thoughtful. It wasn’t until she had been handed the potions and walked back onto the street that she considered that maybe this was stupid. Maybe getting potions as a gift was worse than just getting him a gift he had seen earlier in the month.   
  
She sighed, and looked down to the bundle of potions in her arms. Okay… Plan-E it was.   
  
  
  
  
The day White had to hand over her gift was also the day all the Dexholders would be meeting up again. It was a lot of “hello”s to her Seniors and a few introductions to some of her Juniors.  
She was hardly filled with any confidence. Secret Santa gifts were to be given out in front of everybody. She thought maybe it was a lure for people to buy good gifts, since everybody would be able to judge what you bought — a certain one of her Seniors popped into mind as she considered why such a thing would be put in place.   
  
She tapped her feet nervously as they went down the list. Each person got their gift and loved each one. She couldn’t help but imagine how humiliating it would be, to be the one with the person she knew best but the worst gift.   
  
Crystal stood, clipboard in hand, running the cap end along the paper to find where they were on the schedule. “And… Black! Who got Black’s gift?”   
  
White froze in place. Everyone looked around as they waited for someone to pipe up. She felt the rush of anxiety freeze all her limbs still. What if she got the worst gift? What if Black didn’t like what she had gotten? What if—  
  
She distantly heard the rapid flicking of paper, as Crystal tried to find out if they had made a mistake. She couldn’t bear to look up and see if Black looked any sort of disheartened at the idea of maybe being left off the list this year.   
  
She swallowed the lump in her throat, and stood on shaking legs. “Uh, sorry! I didn’t hear you! I got his gift.”   
From under her chair, she dragged out what was, quite obviously, a gift basket wrapped in paper. She couldn’t exactly lift it easily with how she decided to wrap it, so pushed it across the room toward Black’s own seat.   
“I hope you like it!”   
  
In the back of her mind, she hoped he felt a little embarrassed about constantly running into her as she was trying to buy this gift. She hoped that he would at least play along with liking it even if he didn’t, so not to embarrass her in front of everyone.   
She did a hurried walk back to her seat, just to hear the quick tearing of wrapping paper as she did, and once turned back around and in her chair was only met with the sight of him already rummaging around in the basket.   
  
The potions she had bought were on top, which he seemed to perk up at. Next was the sweater, with the B.W. Agency logo blatant and obvious on top — Black was quick to rid himself of the cheesy Christmas sweater he had once been wearing to put it on. The last things in the basket were the ones White hoped he would like the best. The plush toys of each Pokémon in his team, all huddled around the Emboar snow globe, keeping it safe from any knocks during the ride over here.   
  
“Is that — HAHA! IT’S BO! SLOW GLOBE BO! **_BO GLOBE!_ ** ”   
  
Relief melted away the tension in White’s body as she saw how excited he was about his gift. She was ready to relax, watch the rest of the Dexholders get their gifts, maybe check in the mirror later if the stress of today had resulted in any grey hairs.   
  
“Hey, Prez?”   
  
The same name that had caused her so much grief this past month had been called over, and she looked away from Crystal’s announcement of who was next to get their gift to find Black stood in front of her.   
  
“Did you like your gift?” She asked, casually enough, a relaxed smile on her face after all the stress she had been through.   
  
“Yeah! It was — um, really nice, actually.” Black looked sheepish, and scratched the back of his head with one hand, the other firmly in one of his pockets. “Did you just pick something up every time we hung out this month? It’s really nice that you’d do that! Like—like the plushies from Driftveil, and the… the snow globe from Castelia!”   
  
White blinked owlishly at the accusation that she had done that, and that he had remembered every single time. He didn’t remember it as some kind of inconvenience to finding a gift, like she had, but rather just time they had spent together, hanging out.   
  
Maybe she had been a bit blind to how he was viewing the situation behind her want to grab the perfect gift for him…   
  
She smiled, and gave an embarrassed laugh. “Merry Christmas, Black.”   
  
“Merry Christmas, Prez!” 


End file.
